Nominations and Election of LCMS President

Presidential Election Voter Information

It is nearly time for the voters to cast their vote for the LCMS President. A special postcard was sent to all voters via U.S. mail on May 27, 2016, to alert them to an envelope that will be sent from Election-America on May 31 via U.S. mail.

Voters List Maintenance Forms

During the time that the Presidential Election Voters List is created (at district conventions) until the list is used (four weeks prior to the Synod convention), maintaining the accuracy and reliability of the list will be extremely important.

Because substitute voters may be selected by congregations when district convention delegates are no longer available, a Substitute Voter Form is being provided to report all official substitutions.

The submission of a printed copy of the form that provides all requested information, including the signatures of two congregation officers, must be mailed to the LCMS Office of the Secretary at the address provided at the bottom of the form for all such substitutions.

Because voters’ email, mailing, and residential addresses can change in a year’s time, a Voter Update Form is being provided to facilitate such contact information changes.

A printed copy of this form that provides the changed information and includes the voter’s signature must be mailed to the Synod’s Rosters and Statistics Department at the address provided at the bottom of the form for all such changes.

President Election Process

Four weeks prior (June 11) to the national convention, the Secretary of the Synod, using lists of delegates in attendance at the prior year’s district conventions as submitted by the secretaries of the districts, shall provide, via a secure and verifiable method, opportunity for two voting delegates from each congregation in attendance at the previous district conventions who remain members of the congregations they represented, to vote for one of the three candidates for President.

It is important to understand that the President voting delegate, who will vote for President, may or may not be the same individual selected by the electoral circuit to be the 2016 Convention delegate.

If no candidate receives a majority of the votes cast, another vote will take place in the same manner and at least two weeks (June 25) prior to convention.

President Nomination Process

Each member congregation of our Synod may nominate one or two rostered ordained ministers for the office of the President (Bylaw 3.12.2). Nomination ballots for President will be mailed in October 2015 to all voting congregations and must be turned in to the Secretary of the Synod’s office no later than Feb. 9, 2016. Nomination forms for the President will not be available online.